Tell Me a Story Set, $35 from the small object.
Set of 6 Egg Girls from Around the World, $55 from asherjasper.
Indoor Play Teepee, $215 from Moozle Home.
Kitty Egg Molded Crayons, set of 6 for $18 from Kitty Baby Love.
Dress ‘Em Up Yourself Wooden Doll Set, $15 from Goose Grease.
Small Orange Car, $4.50 from Happy Squash Toys.
Leaf ID Memory Game, $26 from The Whimsy Tree.
Felt Veggies, $18 from Trillium Artisans.
Sand and Sky Bear, $28 from stitchface.
My sewing space has been in limbo for a while now. First, it was in our unfinished bathroom that we decided to finish last year (although we are just now finishing that room), then I moved into our bedroom which has been fine, but I just needed my own space. So I finally decided to take the playroom from the kids. They are almost five and seven years old and agreed that it would be fun to have toys in their own rooms. I’m feeling guilty about taking over the space, but I really need a calm place to myself (you said it, Virginia Woolf). And now the girls have their own spaces too, which my older daughter seems to particularly enjoy.
So, I painted the walls this relaxing color (Martha Stewart’s Fresh Aquarium) and I covered this IKEA office chair with some Alexander Henry fabric and a woven fabric for the seat. I bought a rug and painted my sewing table white. It’s almost there! I hope to share more photos soon.
Just made some of this super moist and delicious zucchini bread yesterday, from our friend Colleen’s recipe. She gave me permission to share it with you! My kids are eating it up. We’re going to call it healthy because it contains a vegetable (let’s overlook the oil and sugar).
Aunt Colleen’s Zucchini Bread
3 c flour
1 t baking soda
1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
1 T cinnamon
3 eggs
2 1/4 c sugar
2 1/2 c grated zucchini
1 c vegetable oil
1 T vanilla
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, sift together the first
five ingredients. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs. Then add sugar,
grated zucchini, oil, and vanilla to the eggs. Gradually add the dry
ingredients to the egg mixture, being sure not to overmix.
Pour into 2 greased 9x5x3 bread pans. Bake at 350 for 1 hour.
Yum! Thanks for sharing, Colleen!
STC Craft sent me a copy of Hand Stitched Felt: 25 Whimsical Sewing Projects by Kata Golda, and they asked me to be part of the blog tour to promote the book. Kata Golda started to sew with felt when her daughter was born in 1999 and soon began a retail business selling her handmade felt items. Looking through the book, I realized that there are quite a few projects that children can make. So I decided to make the finger puppets shown on the cover with my six-year-old. This project was quick and easy and took us about an hour and a half on Sunday morning while still wearing our pjs (always a plus).
My daughter does have some experience sewing (being a former Montessori kid and my daughter), but I think that she did a great job with these. She picked out which animals to make, selected felt colors and then watched as I cut out the felt. We didn’t have a good color felt for the inner ear part, so we just used cotton. My daughter drew the faces directly onto the felt with a fabric marker and then she stitched them on with embroidery floss. She did start to get tired after sewing all three faces, so I helped her put them together. If we’d done this in two sittings, she probably could have done it all herself, but she was eager to get them made and start playing! I changed the construction a bit and sewed them together from the inside (right sides together). In her book, Kata emphasizes the importance of the imperfection in your stitching, but I just need my hand stitching to stay hidden. And yes, I considered putting them in the sewing machine, but resisted the temptation.
So as you can see, the projects in Kata’s book are simple, but oh! so cute. They include a mug cozy, tooth fairy pillow, journal, messenger bag, pincushion, glasses case and more. The projects in the book can be made quickly and use only simple stitches so a beginning stitcher could easily handle them. Kata’s adorable drawings throughout the book, clear instructions and lovely photos make this book a keeper. You can enter to win a copy on the Melanie Falick/STC Craft blog here (enter before October 30). You can take a look at Kata Gold’s shop here and visit her blog here.
My six-year-old finished up her dollhouse rug the other day. We used old t-shirts like we did in my tutorial for Alpha Mom. This time around, we used t-shirt strips for the warp strings as well. I think it turned out to be pretty cute!
